It's 10 pm. Do you know where you and your loved ones are?
Here is a collection of experiences from those who live / have lived with an obsessive MMOG gamer and from those who have lived the experience of obsessive MMOG gaming.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

"I am a mother of three, my husband and I have been married for eight years. Overall, he is a good guy, but the only arguments that we have had over the past 3 years has been over Everquest. I have told him that it is an addictive game and that he is addicted. He uses it as an outlet and when he is depressed, he retreats in the game and is not aware of what is going on. I tell the story of how addicted he is because of an episode that happened one night. I finally took the mouse from the computer so that he could not play the game and went upstairs to our bedroom. It was 9:15 at night, just like an alcoholic he had to have his fix. He actually drove to radio shack, bought a mouse, played his game and then hid the mouse. I found out about it when I went to balance the checkbook and found the charge to Radio shack. The times we get into arguments is when I threaten to take away the mouse, again, he gets violent. He does not hit me, but throws things and puts holes in the walls of our house. If you would meet my husband you would never suspect this behavior. He is a very quiet man and rarely shows aggressive behavior. I have tried to make him realize what this has done to his life and how it affects his family, but he does not think it is an addiction. But It truly is a classic addictive behavior. It has gotten to the point where I feel so lonely. He rarely spends time with me. I spend most of my Friday nights watching TV with my kids, while he plays his game."

2 Comments:

If it's gone on this long, as hard as it is to say this, you have a classic codependent relationship here. It's true, he's the one with the addiction, but you are evidently not doing enough to break him of it. You should seriously consider more drastic action; demand he get help, recruit help from his job, possibly even bring up separation, the same things you do when you work with a crack or booze addict. You have reached an unhealthy but stable point where he isn't going to change, and you are, unfortunately, abetting his addiction by making it possible for him to do what he does. He is counting on you being passive. If you love him, you can’t be. Hiding the mouse is no more effective than hiding a bottle. You need to practically force him to get help. Now.